Quality of food affects weight loss

A study has found that the best way to lose weight is to concentrate on the quality of food that we eat and not on the amount.

What you eat is said to have a greater impact on weight gain than other lifestyle factors such as exercise, a TV couch-potato existence or the amount of sleep you get each night.

Experts at Harvard School of Public Health in America revealed that small lifestyle changes can make all the difference to staying in shape rather than becoming overweight or obese.

But they said focusing on calories alone would not keep you slim. Instead, the best way to stay a healthy weight is eat nutritious and filling foods of good quality, especially when it comes to carbohydrates.

“An average adult gains about 1lb per year. Because the weight gain is so gradual and occurs over many years, it has been difficult for scientists and for individuals themselves to understand the specific factors that may be responsible,” the Daily Express quoted study co-author Dr Dariush Mozaffaria as saying.

“Small dietary and other lifestyle changes can together make a big difference – for bad or good. This makes it easy to gain weight unintentionally, but also demonstrates the tremendous opportunity for prevention.

A handful of the right lifestyle changes will go a long way,” Mozaffaria said.

The findings have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.